Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to polymer compositions for forming temporary or releasable bonds. More specifically, the present invention relates to cross-linkable polymeric adhesive compositions which are useful in bonding a plurality of wafers yet capable of debonding the wafers at room temperature using a mechanical force and methods for fabricating semiconductor devices encompassing these compositions.
Description of the Art
There has been several methods proposed to form various electronic and microelectronic devices using arrays of wafer substrates ranging in size from 1-12 inches, which are fabricated using a plurality of wafer substrates, and are debonded to form individual devices. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0218560 A1 discloses a method for temporary bonding a wafer on to a substrate. However, the compositions disclosed therein are not suitable for high temperature operations as typically required for the fabrication of various electronic and microelectronic devices.
Similarly, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0014532 A1 discloses certain of the curable silicone adhesives suitable for fabricating thin quartz devices suitable in a variety of semiconductor applications. However, this approach requires the use of glass carrier wafer which is expensive and thus not suitable in some applications. In addition, the method described therein requires a special laser in order to release the adhesive layer, thus adding further cost in fabricating the devices.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a cost effective method for temporarily bonding two or more wafers such that the bonded stack has sufficient thermal, mechanical and chemical stability for fabricating a semiconductor device while at the same time it is possible to debond the wafers at room temperature using a mechanical force, and to provide compositions to facilitate such methods.
Other objects and further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows.